During the nation-wide local government elections on February 10 in Sri Lanka, taking the unusual political polarization into consideration, the American Embassy in Colombo took an extra interest, as the results were released after midnight, when it sensed that the regime Washington helped install is cracking apart and the man it maneuvered to displace – Mahinda Rajapaksa – was once again emerging as a national political power within a short spell of 36 months.

The most disturbed individual in Colombo was the American ambassador Athul Keshap as he rushed, no sooner the results showed the ignominious defeat of the SLFP-UNP coalition which resulted in a total disarray and internal dissention within the government, to confer with both President Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe: an unprecedented move by any standard of diplomatic norms and practices.

Anyone who is familiar with diplomatic practices, Athul Keshap’s rush to console the shattered regime, possibly to give moral courage to stay put, among other assurances, it was a blatant exposure of partisan diplomatic move. In fact, it was a political step no foreign diplomat ever took since the British High Commissioner Gladstone stepped into the prohibited zone – a provincial council polling station – when President Premadasa declared him persona non grata.

This ‘Keshap move’ was, according to the definition of the Hatch Act – a US Federal law – and the Vienna Convention, a partisan political misstep, and interference by the sending nation, that’s the United States, in the internal affairs of the receiving nation, Sri Lanka.

As some scholars argue that a diplomat must strive to increase the influence of his government in the receiving state, and to obtain advantage by all possible means at his disposal. Diplomats can take an interest in the internal affairs of the state he is accredited to in the fulfillment of his duties and he has to correctly appraise the internal situation in the country of his residence with the view of reporting to his government. But an attempt to interfere with governmental functions in shaping its policies by means of approaches to head of state or his deputy would be overstepping the bounds of propriety. In such circumstances, he may be said to be interfering in the internal affairs of the state.
According to the definition of the Hatch Act – a U.S. federal law – Ambassador Athul Keshap, in rushing to meet with Sri Lanka’s head of state and his deputy immediately following the results of the nationwide local government election in which the president’s political party as well as his deputy’s political party faced humiliating defeats losing all legitimacy of their joint administration in the country to protect the regime of his choice, crossed the red line no U.S. federal employee is expected to do. Further, Athul Keshap, in doing so, displayed his political affinity with the Sirisena-Wickremasinghe regime over former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose dissident political movement overwhelmingly received the endorsement of the masses of the people.

This writer, who was within the portals of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Colombo for decade and a half as a state department federal employee, recalls, at all times, the mission had political favorites but never openly displayed its affinity or affection with anyone carefully structuring its diplomatic maneuvers and strategies while appraising the internal situation in Sri Lanka with the view of reporting to Washington.

Obviously, the February 10 election results sent waves of panic through US diplomatic mission in Colombo considering the role Obama-State Department had played in 2014 and early 2015 in covertly facilitating a regime change, and when early reports indicated that the ‘favored’ regime was on the path toward total or partial collapse, American ambassador was at their doorstep to encourage them to stay put in their power centers.

Enacted in 1939, the Hatch Act bars U.S. federal employees from participating in political activity while on duty, in the workplace or in an official capacity.

The Act, officially An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities, is a United States federal law, whose main provision prohibits employees from engaging in some forms of political activity. The Act bars the misuse of official authority or influence, and misuse of work place and official duties.

The American ambassador also seems to contravene Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The Article states “Without prejudice to their privileges and immunities, it is the duty of all persons enjoying such privileges and immunities to respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State. They also have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State”.

Ambassador Athul Keshap clearly displayed his political affinity disregarding the Hatch Act, which sizeable U.S. federal employees, to which Keshap falls in, are mandated to follow, and violating Article 41, that all diplomatic representatives are expected to respect.